Aviva Total Politics 2010 Election Map

Total Politics - because knowledge is power

Unelected political influence could be thought of as dangerous. The phrase 'influence' conjures up images of shady corridors and backroom dealing. But our list of the top 50 political influencers shows that political sway is not necessarily a bad thing. Many figures on the list represent the voices of particular causes or sections of the population that wouldn't otherwise be heard. Some, like trade unionist, Bob Crow, find their voice through traditional means; others, like Lily Allen, stumble across alternative routes to those in power.

 

Measuring political influence isn't an exact science. And the list in the following pages is not supposed to be some kind of political bible - it is just for fun. The Total Politics team got their heads together and from experience talking with politicians from across the political spectrum, we decided who the key players in 2010 might be. We were interested in who will be shaping the political ideas that dominate the election and in the unknown entity beyond. All of our top 50 come from outside of the walls of Westminster, so we ruled out the inclusion of MPs and Lords. The only exceptions are archbishops because, while they sit in the House of Lords, their influence comes from their role in the church.

 

Some listed here, like Bob Geldof, are publicity hungry, while others like Steve Hilton actively avoid the spotlight. Some aim to work inside the political system, others like Jeremy Clarkson play the rogue outsider card. Some aim for wide-reaching social change, while others, like Joanna Lumley, are singleissue campaigners. But there are also some similarities. The same character traits occur again and again: charisma, intellect, organisation and hard work.

 

What does the list say about British politics? It might suggest that infl uence is becoming increasingly diverse. The influencers come not just from the traditional powers of society like the church and trade unions, but from political bodies like think tanks and even celebrities. Where political influence lies in British politics is increasingly fluid and this list reflects that.

 

And the best news? We will be doing the same list next year so we can track just how fluid this political influence really is.

 

 

50. Jill Kirby
Director, Centre for Policy Studies
In 1974 the Centre for Policy Studies' first deputy chairman was Margaret Thatcher and the free-market think tank is still ingrained with many of Mrs Thatcher's ideas. While Jill Kirby knows that the dominance of the free market may not fit exactly with David Cameron's ideas, the think tank still has a strong influence over the Conservative Party.

 

49. Stephen Fry
Television presenter
With over a million followers on Twitter and a reputation as one of the best brains in showbiz, Fry is a daunting political figure who has strayed into politics numerous times - recently, with his comments about Cameron's relationship with the Polish Law and Justice Party and later in active support of Akmal Shaikh, the British citizen killed in China.

 

48. John Sentamu
Archbishop of York
Sentamu is not just the Church of England's fi rst black archbishop but also its second most senior clergyman. In January he gave the inaugural Newcastle City for Peace Lecture on religious tolerance and was an active campaigner in the fundraising effort for the people of Haiti.

 

47. Prof Vernon Bogdanor

Academic

Cameron's politics lecturer at Oxford described his former pupil as "one of the ablest" students he has taught. But the academic criticised his ex-student's policy on a Bill of Rights as "confused" and "contradictory". Lib Dem Bogdanor is also an active advocate of proportional representation.

 

46. Richard Dawkins
Atheist campaigner
Often seen as the face of the atheist movement, Dawkins is scathing about religion in British society. Involved in the atheist poster campaign on buses which declared: "There's probably no God - now stop worrying and enjoy your life," he also started his own relief effort for Haiti in which atheists were encouraged to donate.

 

45. Bob Crow
General Secretary, RMT
Crow seems to care very little about public image, actually making him even more of a thorn in the side of the establishment. While a rather embarrassing stint on Have I got News For You might have damaged his personal stakes, he appeared at four different select committees in 2009, hinting at his infl uence within the walls of Westminster.

 

44. Jessica Asato
Acting Director, Progress
The former chair of the Young Fabians is one of the brightest stars on the left. A keen Blairite who announced at the 2010 Fabian conference her plans for compulsory civic service, Asato could be very influential if Brown loses the next election. This summer she is standing for a local council seat and is widely tipped to move into Westminster in the coming years.

 

43. Eddie Izzard
Comedian
Do not be fooled by the surreal stand-up routines from this eccentric, when it comes to politics, Izzard is dead serious. A committed Europhile, he describes himself as a British-European and has previously given funds to the Labour Party.

 

42. Will Straw
Editor, Left Foot Forward
Being the son of a cabinet minister is never easy. But Will Straw has moved out of his father's shadow in 2009 through the continued growth of his political blog Left Foot Forward. The former leader of the Oxford Student Union has become a rising star in progressive politics, notably calling for an apology from Tony Blair over the Iraq War.

 

41. Peter Tatchell
Human rights activist
Tatchell often wades into debates to provoke controversy - he recently described the born-again Christian Iris Robinson as a "hypocrite" after her affair became public. The relentless human rights campaigner wanted to stand as an MP but was informed by his doctor that his health was too fragile. His arrests and beatings by security forces across the globe led to the Daily Mail asking whether he was "Britain's bravest man".

 

40. Bob Geldof
Musician and activist
In tough economic times, it may be harder to raise awareness of problems thousands of miles away, yet Geldof has advised the Tories and Labour on global poverty. The campaigner has now set himself a new challenge after launching a new mobile phone scheme to deal with truancy in schools.

 

39. Richard Dannatt
Constable of the Tower of London
Dannatt's role has become increasingly political. The former head of the British army has been critical of the government's commitment to its troops, was influential in the founding of the incredibly successful 'Help for Heroes' campaign and has announced that he is an adviser on defence issues for the Conservative Party.

 

38. Jeremy Clarkson
Presenter
The Top Gear presenter seems to relish his role as the politicallyincorrect middle Englander, yet his views often strike a chord with the public. Able to hide behind the facade of an 'entertainer', in 2008 the Mail's campaign for him to become PM attracted 30,000 signatures.

 

37. Amartya Sen
Philosopher
Former work and pensions secretary James Purnell once described a conversation between different parts of the Labour Party as a conversation about different interpretations of Amartya Sen. Sen is a revered philosopher and Nobel Prize winning economist.

 

36. Neal Lawson
Chairman, Compass
Arguably the most left-wing of the mainstream think tanks, Compass sits comfortably with the banker-bashing of 2009. Lawson has argued that Labour should sacrifice its middle-class bias and work on reducing inequality through redistributive taxes, a message that will fit well with the financial difficulties of 2010.

 

35. Lily Allen
Singer/Songwriter
Another surprise inclusion, the pint-sized pop star has an influence over the Labour Party which belies her years. After allegedly sparking a backbench rebellion over climate change in 2008, Allen has continued to be outspoken on international conflict and music piracy.

 

34. Seb Coe
Chairman, London Organising Committee for the Olympic Games
The two-time Olympic gold medallist was seen as a key figure in the successful bid for the 2012 Olympic Games and is now tasked with its delivery. Formerly a Conservative MP, Coe has the job of convincing politicians that the escalating costs of the Games are justified in an era of cuts.

 

33. Billy Hayes
General Secretary, Communication Workers Union
Late last year, the CWU organised two postal strikes. Hayes called one strike after a "cynical attempt to sideline the union" by the government and the Post Office management. It is the union from which Alan Johnson came and may rally behind him in any potential leadership challenge.

 

32. Tony Woodley / Derek Simpson
Joint Secretaries, UNITE
Woodley's 2009 will be remembered for the moment he got up at the Labour conference, the day after The Sun declared its support for David Cameron, and ripped up a copy of the paper. In an interview before the same conference, Simpson said Labour had "failed to keep in touch with its core vote".

 

31. Stuart Polak
Director, Conservative Friends for Israel
In November last year a Dispatches programme claimed that 50 per cent of the shadow cabinet were members of Conservative Friends of Israel. The investigation also said that CFI members and all their companies had donated over £10m to the Conservative Party. The party and the CFI dispute these figures.

 

30. Eamonn Butler
Director, Adam Smith Institute
The think tank has been advocating a radical freemarket agenda for over 30 years. The ASI unveiled the world's first public monument to Adam Smith in 2008 and Butler published a book this year called The Rotten State of Britain.

 

29. Sunder Katwala
General Secretary, Fabian Society
A strong public speaker and self-confessed blog-aholic, Katwala's stock has risen considerably in the last year. A campaigner for electoral reform, he recently tipped Yvette Cooper as the most likely leader of the Labour Party after Gordon Brown.

 

28. Andrew Haldenby
Director, Reform
Haldenby is not merely the director of the think tank Reform but also its co-founder. Free-market economics might have taken a hit with the failure of self-regulation but proposals for scrapping child and working tax credits and statutory maternity pay may be popular in the new era of cuts and austerity.

 

27. Sally Bercow
Speaker's wife and Labour council candidate
The Speakers' wife is traditionally a passive role in British politics. Not so with Sally Bercow. Earlier this year, she announced that she disliked her Conservative husband's party leader and also said she would be standing as a local candidate for Labour. Her revalations about her sexual past and binge drinking have thrust her into the media spotlight.

 

26. Simon Cowell
Music supremo
Perhaps a surprise inclusion, Cowell is someone who can guarantee the attention of political leaders if he wants it. Last year the X-Factor mastermind announced that he was considering bringing the populism of the show to politics, with politicians suggesting policies to be voted on by the public. Such is his influence that David Cameron admitted recently that "politics can learn from Simon Cowell".

 

25. Matthew Elliott
Chief Executive, TaxPayers' Alliance
The media-savvy Elliott has worked out how to get coverage: "Journalists' budgets have been cut back massively and yet they have to produce much more content... So when we present them with some primary source material, it's guaranteed to be a good story." Elliott also proposes abolishing Sure Start, freezing pensions and making students pay interest on their loans.

 

24. Shami Chakrabarti
Director, Liberty
The most influential voice for civil liberties in the UK, Chakrabati is a tireless campaigner on an array of issues. Recently she has been in the courts taking up cases on the right of a British Airways employee to wear a cross to work and appealing against stop-andsearch in the Court of Human Rights.

 

23. Trevor Phillips
Head, Equality and Human Rights Commission
Previously the chairman of the Commission for Racial Equality, Phillips has caused considerable controversy. In 2006 he declared that Muslims who want sharia law should leave the country and in 2008 said mass immigration had led to a racial "cold war". Surviving a leadership challenge last year, Phillips will be pivotal in forcing through the new Equality Bill.

 

22. Heather Brooke
Campaigner
If 2009 was the year of expenses, then Heather Brooke was its queen. Since the introduction of the Freedom of Information Act in 2000, Brooke has been campaigning for more disclosure of public finances. In 2009 she won a landmark case demanding the full disclosure of second homes allowances. Her achievements earned her Reform's Political Reformer of the Year 2009.

 

21. Prince Charles
Heir to the throne
The king-in-waiting established the Prince's Trust in 1976. This has led him into semi-political arenas including support for the Countryside Alliance and flying to Copenhagen to address the world's leaders on climate change. Recently letters Charles sent to Boris Johnson were the subject of a Freedom of Information claim by journalist Adam Bienkov, who accused him of being too involved in politics.

 

20. Will Hutton
Writer and commentator
Since writing The State We're In, a book predicting an impending economic collapse, Hutton has been waiting for this moment. In 2009, he was projected to the status of economic prophet. Recently, Hutton has been engaged in economic email debates with senior Conservatives including George Osborne and Boris Johnson.

 

19. Mark Serwotka
General Secretary, Public and Communications Union
Leader of the union responsible for civil servants, Sewotka is a rarity, coming straight from the shop-floor to the top job. A former member of Socialist Organiser, in 2005 he was the most prominent trade unionist to support Respect. Re-elected for a third five-year term in January, Sewotka is fighting public sector cuts, calling proposed changes to civil servants' redundancy pay "despicable".

 

18. Phillip Blond
Director, ResPublica
The leading face of 'Red Toryism', Blond shot to fame in February last year when he was featured in Prospect magazine. He has headed up the influential Progressive Conservatism project at Demos, now runs his own think tank, ResPublica, and is thought of as a key influence behind many of Cameron's social policies.

 

17. Philippa Stroud
Chief Executive, Centre for Social Justice
The brainchild of former Conservative leader Iain Duncan Smith, the front page of the CSJ's website lists the number of its policies adopted by both Labour and the Conservatives (currently 39 and 70 respectively). Stroud is also the director of the Conservative Party's social justice policy group and a Tory candidate for Sutton, Cheam and Worcester Park.

 

16. Dave Prentis
General Secretary, UNISON Last year Prentis threatened to remove UNISON's funding to the Labour Party if it did not do more for public sector workers. While he has stopped short of this, the power of the unions to influence Labour policy may grow as private funding shrinks. After criticism of his leadership, he was forced to call a snap election on his tenure.

 

15. Richard Reeves
Director, Demos
The smooth director of Demos has had a busy 2009. Under his stewardship, Demos has moved closer to the Conservative Party with David Cameron launching his policy on social responsibility from their offices. As such, Reeves is strategically placed to be powerful whoever wins the next election.

 

14. Neil O'Brien
Director, Policy Exchange
Policy Exchange has been described as David Cameron's favourite think tank and O'Brien's call for an overhaul of the BBC will undoubtedly be a major battleground in the next few months. Other proposals from the think tank to be given prominence include wider choice in education and demands for greater localism.

 

13. Sir Gus O'Donnell
Head of the Home Civil Service
O'Donnell was instrumental in trying to keep the minutes of the cabinet meetings on Iraq secret. He was criticised in 2009 for claiming £19,000 of taxpayers' money in three months. In January, Cameron announced that if the Conservatives win the election he wants O'Donnell to remain in charge.

 

12. Brendan Barber
General Secretary, TUC
High levels of joblessness put pressure on the TUC to get a good deal and Barber has consistently campaigned against failing the unemployed. More pragmatic than some union leaders, Barber has met with shadow chancellor George Osborne in a move that could be seen as preparing for a Tory government.

 

11. Justine Roberts
Creator, Mumsnet
Last year Mumsnet, a website "by parents, for parents", crossed into the political sphere. Identifi ed by the parties as a source of fl oating voters, all three leaders conducted live internet interviews on the website. These were a rather different kind of grilling, with Brown infamously dithering over his favourite biscuit. Mums were an essential source of Tony Blair's popularity and Justine Roberts holds the key to accessing them again.

 

10. Andy Coulson
Director of Communications, Conservative Party
Coulson is increasingly powerful in Conservative circles in the build-up to this election. In January, the former News of the World editor apparently caused anger in the party by pushing through proposals for 'prison ships', which were opposed by many Conservative MPs, including allegedly some frontbenchers.

 

9. Joanna Lumley
Actress and Gurkha rights campaigner
Westminster was rocked last year when Lumley spearheaded the Gurkha Justice Campaign. A deft political touch and a masterful public relations exercise resulted in a complete political victory. Though she publicly stated that she was not interested in elected politics, she did not rule out future single-issue campaigns.

 

8. David Richards
Head of the British Army
The British government has been accused of underfunding the war in Afghanistan and Richards has run an incredibly effective campaign to keep the army in the spotlight. With a defence review looming, he has been involved in a vicious war of words with the Royal Navy, saying that Britain puts too much emphasis on "hugely expensive equipment" and should focus its resources on troops, an argument he is widely thought to be winning.

 

7. Richard Lambert
Director-General, CBI
The former editor of the Financial Times, since taking over from Sir Digby Jones in 2006 has increasingly flexed his political muscles. On the first day of this year, he announced that the CBI deemed the government's deficit reduction plans unsatisfactory and later declared the economy will take years to recover. The CBI's membership of 200,000 British businesses is a powerful base for Lambert's quiet but effective approach.

 

6. Rowan Williams
Archbishop of Canterbury
The leader of the Church of England is not averse to speaking his mind. In 2008 he declared that Sharia Law in the UK was "inevitable". Previously he criticised the Iraq War saying "doubts still persist about the moral legitimacy as well as the unpredictable humanitarian consequences of a war with Iraq". This outspoken attitude potentially makes him a lose cannon, and a powerful one at that.

 

5. Sarah Brown
Charity worker and PM's wife
Unlike her husband, Sarah Brown has no image problems. Behind the natural smile and endless photocalls, she campaigns hard for issues that matter to her. Mrs Brown has over one million followers on Twitter and a host of celebrity friends including Naomi Campbell and Paris Hilton. Her role as partner to the PM in the election will be followed closely in the media.

 

4. Steve Hilton
Director of Strategy, Conservative Party
Being compared to Alastair Campbell is not often meant kindly. But Steve Hilton has been working with David Cameron since they met at Conservative central office 20 years ago. He is to David Cameron what Campbell was to Blair: talented, dedicated, tough and loyal. Central to the modernisation of the party, Hilton is thought to be unpopular with many of the more traditional members. The man charged with moving the Conservatives away from their 'nasty party' image is ironically known for his fiery temper, having had two brushes with the law in recent years. The Spectator recently described him as the third most important man in the party - behind Cameron and Osborne.

 

 

THE TOP 3

 

3. Paul Dacre
Editor-in-Chief, Associated Newspapers
The publicist Max Clifford one told a House of Commons select committee that Dacre is "virtually a law to himself". To some, a malign force attacking minorities and to others a genius with his fi nger on the pulse of Middle England, Dacre is undoubtedly a powerful figure. Under his stewardship the Mail's circulation has risen to over two million and he received a salary of £1.64m in 2008, making him the best-paid editor on Fleet Street. Almost uniquely in British newspapers he is also on the board of the Daily Mail and General Trust so has greater infl uence. Dacre's 2007 Cudlipp Lecture goes down in folk law - in the space of a few minutes he attacked The Times and The Guardian, and described the BBC as a monolith. While hardly an unknown quantity, how strongly he supports the Conservative Party will be crucial at the next election.

 

2. Mervyn King
Governor of the Bank of England
The Bank of England's role is bound to be more influential when the going gets tough. In the past year, the man in charge of setting interest rates has been a very vocal figure in the economic crisis, publicly disagreeing with the government on several issues. The Cambridge graduate has been in the upper echelons of the Bank of England since the early 1990s - as non-executive director, chief economist and deputy governor. But in the wake of the recession, King has become heavily critical of the financial sector. Speaking to the Treasury select committee in January, he called for bankers to take a permanent cut in their wages saying it was very unlikely that they could make a case to "justify the extraordinary pay". He also heaped praise on President Obama's plans for breaking up the banks, a move that put him in opposition with Gordon Brown. When the Bank of England announced in February that it was to halt the emergency expansion of credit because of fears of infl ation, it is thought that King was crucial in stating that the bank would step in again if necessary.

 

1. Rupert Murdoch
Chief Executive, News Corp
Many thousands of hours have been spent discussing the power that Murdoch has over British politics. In 2009 Polly Toynbee accused him of avoiding taxes by "leaning hard on politicians, who - knowing only too well his dominant voice in newspapers - are frightened for their lives". Before his election in 1997, Tony Blair famously worked hard to woo the media mogul, including sending his aide Alastair Campbell to America to talk with him. Murdoch's newspaper empire includes The Times and The Sun. In September 2009, The Sun declared their support for David Cameron at the coming election. Despite debates about causality, since 1979 the paper has supported the winning party at every election. News Corp also owns BSkyB and in February, Steve Busfield of the Guardian accused The Times of pushing Sky's agenda through its choice of stories. Murdoch's domination looks set to stay in the family, with his son James favourite to take over as chief executive when he retires.